Stenhousemuir -vs- Dumbarton (Saturday 3 February 2024)

[Vimto90]

That was lovely. Get it right right up yous. 

[Neilly]

I enjoyed that one from sunny Nigeria.

Why Bradley Rodden started only Gary will know but as soon as we made that double sub on the hour with Taylor/Yates for Brown/Rodden we went up a few gears and deserved the victory. It's a sub I would have made at half time but we got there in the end.

Buchanan flawless at the back for us a real captain's performance. Anderson dominated the wee fella in midfield (reportedly Finlay wears Mikey Anderson pyjamas) and Kyle Jacobs picked up the scraps that he couldn't. Ross Taylor though, what a bloody cameo! Nevermind the goal some of the runs down the right flank the only way to stop him was to scythe him down - big puddin Crighton with a particularly callous one.

Old manned a really limp Dumbarton side to close the game out. Daft from Ryan Blair what is he thinking there? He is the epitome of this Dumbarton side though - sometimes not bad on the eye but doesn't have enough grit and balls.

As always lads it's #FazIn for me. Enjoy your evening.

Edited February 3 by Neilly

[warriors21]

The first half today was a rotten spectacle and, until the double sub Naysmith made in bringing on Yates and Taylor for Rodden and Brown, I felt that Dumbarton were the better team and Ryan Blair was the best player on the park.

It was a completely different game when Yates and Taylor came on - we were more direct, played faster and it got another 10% out of every Stenny player.
 

I really can’t stress enough how much I love this team and group of players. The scenes at the end were just super.

That sequence of results today has, for me anyway, as good as secured our first ever league title. We’re 13 ahead (by giving Spartans 6 points for their 2 games in hand) with 13 to play, and I cannot see any other team putting a run together where they gain on average more than 1 point per match extra than us over the remaining 13 games.

[Boghead ranter]

1 minute ago, warriors21 said:

The first half today was a rotten spectacle and, until the double sub Naysmith made in bringing on Yates and Taylor for Rodden and Brown, I felt that Dumbarton were the better team and Ryan Blair was the best player on the park.

It was a completely different game when Yates and Taylor came on - we were more direct, played faster and it got another 10% out of every Stenny player.
 

I really can’t stress enough how much I love this team and group of players. The scenes at the end were just super.

That sequence of results today has, for me anyway, as good as secured our first ever league title. We’re 13 ahead (by giving Spartans 6 points for their 2 games in hand) with 13 to play, and I cannot see any other team putting a run together where they gain on average more than 1 point per match extra than us over the remaining 13 games.

Good summation. Only bit I'd slightly disagree with is that while not being bad , I didn't think Blair was outstanding either.

Last bit is spot on, even if Stenny contrive to lose every game from now until the end of the season  (which they won't) I can't see anyone else being consistent enough to take advantage. 

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

First 20 minutes of the game was scrappy and not much on show, then Dumbarton took control. Some nice passes and thought Kelly linked up play well. They looked threatening but missing that crucial pass or confidence to just hit one. Pignatiello was giving Bilham a hard time and was always a threat, fantastic player at this level. Rodden was lucky to stay on, thought he had a blatant kick out at a Sons player and was only booked.

Naysmith made 2 perfect changes at the right time and the pace of Taylor with Yates's work rate just caused the Sons so many problems. The main factor in the improvement in our performance was Mikey Anderson. Superb effort that rattled the ball but he retained more possession and started to win the battle in the centre of the park. Thought he was the best player on the pitch by the end. 

Ryan Blair's red card was just silly, there was no need to do it. Crighton could've walked as well with his tackle on Taylor but think Dumbarton had players slightly further back than Crighton. Was a cynical foul. 

Think we deserved 3 points by the end of the game and other results favoured us too. Peterhead and Spartans inconsistency could be the factor that wins us the league.

One other thing, some terrible haircuts being sported by the Dumbarton players... Finlay Grey especially with a shocking mullet. get that shaved Son .

[Silverton End]

Good luck in League 1 lads, Montrose is always a good trip, the wee Club just outside Links is good for a pint, think they still do chips at Palmerston & a roll n Scotch Pie washed down with soup from the wee van is always a treat at Alloa.

 

[squeezebox-son]

I actually thought we looked the better team for 80% of that match. The only thing that impresses me about Stenny, once again, is their ability to grind out results when they didn't play that well.

Once again though, we were tactically naive and Faz didn't make the right changes - despite them being ones that seemed very obvious to many of us in the terracing behind the goal.

Ryan Blair had a good game, but still got caught too many times and once he was booked we should have brought Malcolm on. We took off Finlay but left on Blair and it cost us any chance of pulling anything back. Apart from the 10/15 minute spell of pressure Stenny had after their double sub (where they scored and we got a man sent off) we regained control for the final quarter of an hour.

Ref had a strange game. In the first half he seemed too keen to let play flow and didn't stop for a few obvious pushes and fouls. But in the 2nd half he gave a lot of soft ones the way of the home side. I also thought there were worse challenges than Ryan Blair 2nd booking, which he didn't give cards for.

Enjoy the title guys, they don't come along often enough for teams like ours and we certainly won't see one as long as Faz is the gaffer.

[Boghead ranter]

25 minutes ago, squeezebox-son said:

. I also thought there were worse challenges than Ryan Blair 2nd booking, which he didn't give cards for.

I was sitting in the stand near to where Blair's 2nd yellow happened. 

Notwithstanding the fact that it was a cynical tackle that nearly always draws a yellow, Blair also gave the ref some verbals for blowing the whistle, thus repeating what he got the 1st half booking for.

[Boghead ranter]

Also, the one sub Faz got right wss taking R. Wallace off - he too was also on a booking, and was still involved in a bitching match with Taylor for ages afterwards. He wss going to end up on a 2nd yellow too.

[Nowhereman]

For all we looked the better team for a large part of the match I can’t remember us testing the keeper even once. Twelve corners and none of them were remotely threatening. If you don’t score you’ll win nothing. As for Stenny they are an odd one. That’s three times we have played them and not once have they looked up to much. Yet they keep grinding out odd goal victories. A bit like us in the first half of last season. Big difference being that Stenny look as if they’ll keep it going and they have no one putting any pressure on them 

[The Moonster]

I suppose all you can say is congratulations to Stenshousemuir on their title. Much like Stirling last year they've ground it out and fully deserve it. 

Nothing will change for Dumbarton until the manager goes. That doesn't happen until the chairman goes. And that doesn't happen until the owner goes...

[squeezebox-son]

29 minutes ago, Boghead ranter said:

I was sitting in the stand near to where Blair's 2nd yellow happened. 

Notwithstanding the fact that it was a cynical tackle that nearly always draws a yellow, Blair also gave the ref some verbals for blowing the whistle, thus repeating what he got the 1st half booking for.

I wasn't debating that he deserved the yellow. It was correct. Not giving the others bookings was his mistake. Particularly the challenge from behind (possible 2 footed) near the end where we broke into their half. Cynical and a clear booking all day. As I said in my initial post, worse than Blair's 2nd yellow and wasn't the only one I thought merited a card.

[Jan Vojáček]

I actually couldn't have asked a great deal more from us today. I thought we were the better team for large spells, we created chances, we defended well for the most part and both teams left absolutely everything on the park. There was no shortage of effort, nobody hiding and it got quite tasty and physical.

The game totally changed with the introduction of Ross Taylor and Matty Yates. Two players who I was surprised (and delighted) to see on the bench.

Bradley Rodden was trying too hard to make an impression and I thought he looked really poor. He was also possibly a bit lucky with a silly kick out at Cian Newbury in the first-half, albeit it was more petulant and frustrated than violent. Adam Brown, set pieces aside, offered very little.

Taylor and Yates brought a pace and dynamism to the game that we couldn't match. We were playing well, but we were a a bit short of speed - and those two exploited that. The 15 minutes between them coming on, the goal and Ryan Blair's second booking was the sort of stuff you'd expect from league winners. The were insatiable.

Taylor is a wee dick. Of that there is no doubt. But he's also absolutely tremendous at football. I was asking a few Stenny folk why he wasn't starting, and they said it was because he can't fully be trusted not to lose the plot. And that was evident today. He had Gallagher Lennon on toast, yet got involved in silly wee slagging matches, where he ended up winding himself up - picking up a daft booking and then fizzling out the game as a few teammates told him to chill out. He brought a chaos factor, for sure, but I think we saw the very best and very worst of him in his cameo.

Matty Yates was excellent. As he usually is. A really classy player who I expect to move into full-time football in the summer.

Bringing them on won the game for Stenny.

But aside from that crazy 15/20 minutes where they landed the knockout blow, I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves. And can feel a bit disappointed to come away with nothing.

We created some good openings; Ryan Wallace missed a one-on-one, Sean Crighton and Jinky Hilton both missed excellent chances in stoppage time - and there's no denying we went for it. It was like a 3-3-3 for the last 10 minutes or so. My big frustration is that we just don't shoot enough. We only shoot when there's no other option on, and Darren Jamieson only really had a couple of saves to make.

In the first-half, Ryan Blair was excellent. Mikey Anderson looked Stenhousemuir's biggest threat, but he wasn't in the game as much as he would've wanted and a lot of that was because of Ryan Blair. But his bookings were incredibly stupid; and I've no complaints about either.

The first was for mouthing off after a pretty clearcut foul on Gallagher Lennon wasn't given. It's done. Shut up and move on. The second was for a sort of half-arsed tactical foul on half-way. The sort that is fine to make if you aren't on a booking. But just stupidity to do when you are.

I thought Michael Ruth led the line superbly as per usual; but without scoring. As per usual. My God, if we could find a way for him to hit 12-15 goals a season we'd have the best striker in the league on our hands. Everything about his game is great, he just doesn't score goals.

You could probably same something similar about Ryan Wallace. It wasn't his best game, but he had a golden chance one-on-one and tamely fired at Darren Jamieson. You need to score when you're on top, and we're really bad for not doing that.

As frustrated as I was with our finishing though, I think Gregor Buchanan deserves a lot of credit. He was the best player on the park today by some distance imo, and when he's playing like that he's quite possibly the best player in the division.

Aerially he was sensational, especially from dead balls. He read danger and covered for his teammates and he was flinging himself at everything. He looked like he'd rather die than concede a goal and you have to admire that. It was a real captain's performance.

In terms of us; Cian Newbury once again turned in a very good showing. He was calm and measured with the ball when the time was right, he walloped it away when the time was right. He didn't give Matty Aitken much sniff of goal and for someone of 18 I just can't speak highly enough of him. I'm an enormous fan.

I thought Carlo Pignatiello had his best game for a while. But I still want to see more crossing and less dribbling from him. He looked excellent when he moved into midfield too; I'd love to clone him and just play a team with 10 of him and a goalkeeper.

In terms of our new additions. Gallagher Lennon had a tough game against Euan O'Reilly and then Ross Taylor. Both are blisteringly quick and Lennon just doesn't have much pace about him, he looks like a centre-half playing at full-back. And I wonder if we might need to switch to three at the back to make things work.

It took Marc Kelly a fair bit of time to settle into the team; and I'm going to make two statements about him. I don't think he has the pace to be a winger at this level, but I do think he looked like he could be a handy #10. He glides past players inside, his touch looks good and he looks like a nice passer of the ball. He's maybe got a bit of finesse and quality on the ball that Kalvin Orsi doesn't have wide, but doesn't have the pace and physicality that makes Kalvin such a threat.

I really liked what I saw from Aaron Healy. He's absolutely tiny (as in Stevie Murray sized) but he was very direct, always wanting to take people on and looked like he could create. Yeah he lost the ball a few times dribbling in tight areas, but I liked what he was trying. I'm excited to see more.

He also dug out a cracker of a cross in injury time on the run for Jinky Hilton. But he tamely fired right at Darren Jamieson when anything with a bit of power and pace probably ends up in the back of the net.

As said above, we've played Stenny three times and they haven't blown us away on any occasion. But the last two games have been exactly what champions do. Grinding out results with grit, determination and just a wee sprinkling of quality at the key moment. And their defensive record speaks for itself, it really is remarkable. They deserve to be where they are for that alone.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

31 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I suppose all you can say is congratulations to Stenshousemuir on their title. Much like Stirling last year they've ground it out and fully deserve it. 

Nothing will change for Dumbarton until the manager goes. That doesn't happen until the chairman goes. And that doesn't happen until the owner goes...

Correct Moonster, Dr Neil Mackay is an absolute cancer on our great club. 

[Nigel Blackwell]

I feel as if that was the result that won us the league today.  Really insipid first half with barely a shot at goal. I think we had the best chance when Edin Lynch had a clear chance but just seemed to take a spilt second too long to engage his brain and take a shot.

Half time and I'm thinking a point would be a good result. No doubt Dumbo started well and fired Naysmith into making the changes that won the match. Taylor's cameo was fantastic.

Was still a nervy climax and Dumbo had a great chance towards the end but the shot really lacked conviction and Jamieson saved easily. 

We are going to have to go some now not to win the league. It really is a great group of players and you just can't see how they are going to drop enough points for anyone else to win the league. 

[Broxi Bears]

Game changed with the introduction of Yates and Taylor. Both were outstanding and caused chaos that Dumbarton just couldn’t handle.

Taylor was getting kicked up and down the pitch and got Crichton, Wallace and Pignatello all booked with Lennon having a lucky escape. Glad he recovered from the illness that kept him out last week. 

Another massive 3 points and with Peterhead and Spartans dropping points it’s another happy Saturday for the Warriors. 

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

Other posters have summed up the game far better than I could so won't attempt to summarise the action in any real detail.

Today was the biggest game of the season. It was always going to be the game after the winning run ended (especially ending with a defeat) but to add to that, it was against one of the pack just behind us. To win it by hook or by crook is a massive psychological win.

Yates wasn't fully fit which is why he didn't start. The 4-4-2 was very odd and Rodden was poor and Brown in an orthodox left wing role just didn't work. Credit to Naysmith for both the changes and the timing of them.

The general concensus is Dumbarton have the best squad and I agree. However, it's by virtue of simply having the most average or better L2 players, but there is no wow factor. Not one player that vaguely give me the fear like say Goss, Reilly or Hester did last year. For the wage bill, there really should be one or two of them.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Four points from a possible twenty-one against the other three top four teams. We cannot create enough chances against well-organised defences, and those we do we don't convert.

And once again a game was won and lost in midfield.  Stenny had much more in that area, and to Sons fans who thought Ryan Blair had a good game, his mistake in conceding the free kick which led to the goal simply cannot be overlooked, especially coming only weeks after a similar mistake which led to East Fife's winning goal.  His red card will eliminate that possibility next week.

It's going to be a long, slow run in, and I'd bet we'll still be visiting New Dundas Park this time next year.

Well done to Stenny, you will have earned your title.

 

 

[Jan Vojáček]

2 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Four points from a possible twenty-one against the other three top four teams. We cannot create enough chances against well-organised defences, and those we do we don't convert.

And once again a game was won and lost in midfield.  Stenny had much more in that area, and to Sons fans who thought Ryan Blair had a good game, his mistake in conceding the free kick which led to the goal simply cannot be overlooked, 

That was Sean Crighton was it not? I'm sure the goal came from the free-kick where Crighton absolutely pole-axed Ross Taylor.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

4 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

That was Sean Crighton was it not? I'm sure the goal came from the free-kick where Crighton absolutely pole-axed Ross Taylor.

I'd need to see it back, but we were passing it around with increasing risk in our own half, and you may be correct - Crighton passed it to Blair who then lost possession very cheaply to Taylor who took off and was hacked down by Crighton.  I stand fully by my point even if the actual foul was committed by Crighton.